On Jul 16, 2008, at 1:49 AM, Rick Dempster wrote:
> "> He really turned it into a 'voice', and really made me think
very
>> differently about the instrument.
>
> I ALWAYS thought about it that way. I suppose listening to
Neopolitan
> love songs, gave me an idea of where I wanted to go.
> "
> ..........If you started out on chromatic Joe, I can understand
> that. But I'm not aware of anyone prior to McCoy who combined the
> blues-born technique of pitch-bending with a European concept of
> melody, on the diatonic.
>
> RD
>
Ok, the key word here was 'voice'. If you watch American Idol or Show
Time at the Apollo, you will notice that singers no longer 'stay' on
notes. They will do something I like to call 'dance around the
notes' (if I'm in a good mood), OR 'warble around till they find a
note that fits' (if I'm in a naughty mood).
In other words, instead of singing "Oh say can you see", we get "o-o-
oo-o-ah, sa-a-a-ay Can you-o-oo-o-oo-o Se-eeeee". Now imagine that
while you are mouthing these words, the musical notes are all OVER
the treble staff. Sometimes the singer doesn't even hit the CRUCIAL
note, and they don't always stay true to the chords. Usually placing
anywhere from 6 to 9 notes into the warble, its still important to
land on the crucial mandatory note.
Ok, you don't get this garbage with Neopolitan ballads. The singers
are in the alto range (not tenor) and they add more like 3 to 6 notes
(not 9), and they aren't warbling around in an effort to impress
everyone that they have soul. The HAVE it........ naturally. If I
were to play a tune, I would study the singer who made the tune MOST
popular. Chances are that there was a reason that that singer had a
hit. Example: If you're going to do Alfie, do it like Dion Warwick.
Now, while I'm sure he wasn't THE first, the first time I recall
noticing 'dancing voice' coming from an American was Stevie Wonder. I
don't know why, maybe the high pitch attracted my notice. He is one
of the few where it fits. Most singers turn it into a scream-fest.
The same thing happens with some harmonica players. Some will go into
orbit and forget where the space station is. Then they're lost in
space and can't find their way back. So, after they run out of fuel,
they drift around. The idea is to 'turn' the chords but stay true to
them. In other words, work around but DO wind up where you're
supposed to be, or everything sounds like trype.
a... Good example of going into orbit and NOT getting
lost..............Mike Turk
b... Good example of someone hitting strange note
combinations...Toots
When I was a youngster and spent my first 18 years pretty evenly
divided into 2 year stints between New York City and (mostly) Italy ,
there were 3 kinds of musics one could listen to. They were:
1... Local Italian...nice stuff but an awful lot of mandolins
2... Armed Forces radio out of Heidelberg...30s & 40s American big
band geared to the senior officers and non coms who were left behind
after the war.
3... Radios Wien, Praha, Buda-Pesht, Bucharesti. You had to have a
short wave. We had a Telefunkin.
So, my early influences were these. And it was a time when musicians
were musicians. Not noise makers. Eventually I played at the Sea
Garden. It was a cafe/bistro/restaurant/night club that was in the
park on the waterfront in Mergelina Naples. We did tunes like 'La
Stella di Napoli', Maruzella, Quando si Bella Roma. That's why I
played chromo first. The drifts from majors to minors and key changes
were not conducive to diatonic.
smo-joe
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